This is the continuation of the Bug Hunt and will address the Bug War mentioned in the Planet Dirt series. It follows Jack Thompson and Lady Zula Gi Pendragon, and their friends through the war
Book 1 / Amazon version / Patreon
Hir-Nan yawned as he looked at the screen; it was one of the safest jobs in the Caren domain. Watch the long-distance scan of the Pladused system. It was in the middle of the Gyrran kingdom, and the chances of this place being attacked were less than the humans dropping from the sky. The federation didn’t even know this place existed.
In fact, he wished something would happen. They all wanted something to happen, but nothing ever did. They had been here for five years, and the Gyrran was completely pacified. Suddenly the screen blinked, and he looked at it. Probably a rogue asteroid, or if he were lucky, a ship had done a blind jump into the system. The screen showed a Federation warship. It had no class, just a name: Gungnir. The AI immediately tagged it as a high-priority target for capture.
Hir-Nan called up Furna Kar, the commanding officer, as four new signals popped up on the screen; four Gyrran third-generation dreadnoughts attacked the target.
“Stop them! Stop them! We need that ship, they have high-priority targets!” She shouted, and Hir-Nan looked over at his colleagues as they sent out the new orders. The Gyrran commander informed them that the ship had destroyed three dreadnaughts and had been part of the attack on the capital.
The news made his commander go to her office and call the commander up. He could hear hissing and screeching from the commander.
“They attacked the capital?” Hur-Nun asked, and Hir-Nan shrugged, looking at his friend.
“No wonder the fools are so bloodthirsty; they know better than to bring battleships to this system. I almost pity the humans.”
“I don’t; it just means we are more likely to get more meat rations.” Hur-Nun joked, and they both laughed as the screen showed that seven frigates had been launched to relieve the Gyrran ships. One of the Gyrran ships started flying toward the space station, and the commander came out from her office.
“Sir. One of the ships is trying to enter the zone!’ he called out, and Commander Furna waved a hand.
“They requested a quick repair; their engine has a leak, and they can’t jump into lightspeed before it's fixed. Better to let the station repair it than blow it up. They are going to need all the ships they can get now. Even the third generations.” She replied as she got back to her station.
“What was all that about?” The second-in-command asked, shaking her head in disbelief.
“The humans made a desperate attempt to kidnap the king; they got the stand, and they managed to force them back, but several of our ships were destroyed in the initial attack as well as several of our officers; they are trying to locate everybody. The boss is pissed, so do your job well today so you won't end up as bug food.” She replied.
Hir-nan looked at his friend, then back at the screen; last time the boss was angry, he fed a whole department to the bugs. He focused on the screen, watching as the Gyrran ship neared the space station.
“Sir! The ship warning system is going off; the containment field is breaking. Not enough power… SHIT!” The communications officer said, as if the Gyrran ship exploded just as it was about to dock.
“GET VISUAL!” their Commander Furna yelled, and the image popped up on the screen. Half the station was gone, and it was losing attitude. The blast had pushed the base out of orbit.
“Where will it crash?” Somebody shouted.
“Northern ocean, but the debris will rain down on us as well!” Somebody else replied.
Hir-Nan just stared at the screen, confused. “What..?” Then his own screen blinked, and he looked at it, confused. Gungnir was gone, and three of their ships were gone. The three Gyrran ships suddenly showed up as seventh-generation dreadnoughts. Then two more of their ships just blinked out.
“Shit! They are attacking!” he called out. And they looked at him as he put his screen up next to the falling space station.
“Call retreat; the satellite defense system will knock them out!” Commander Furna called, then called up Base Commander Sharu Husha.
“We are so bug meat!” Hir-Nan said as he watched their own ship turn around to escape.
“I’m locked out! What’s going on?” The security officer called out. “It says the boss locked me out!”
Hir-Nan watched as almost all of the ships were destroyed; three were left, making a desperate attempt to return to safety. Then there were two, but they were getting closer. The missiles were now entering the atmosphere. He watched as the base launched all its fighters and light battleships and tried to enter the atmosphere to face the traitorous Gyrran. A few missed shots hit the satellites, and for a second he feared he would lose the long-distance radar. Now there was only one of their retreating ships left. Poor soul; they probably wouldn't make it. The Gyrran was firing wildly, grazing the shield and hitting everything but the ships as it wove and spun to avoid the shots. Several satellites were now blasted, and keeping up with the view was getting harder and harder; he had to constantly switch views and systems to stay current. He even called up satellites from the other side of the planet to keep up with the fight. He knew it would leave a blind spot on the other side of the planet, but if he didn’t do anything, they would be completely blind over the base.
Suddenly, seven new Gyrran ships emerged and attacked the ships.
“Where did those come from?” Commander Furna shouted, and Hir-Nan ran an origin program to find where they entered the system from, then cursed.
“They are attacking our sensors to blind us. They came from the far side of the planet!”
The base commander, Sharu Husha, entered the command center with his two guards. “What's the status?” he hissed.
“The Gyrran is attacking; we are blind and jammed. No signals are leaving the system.” Commander Furna replied. Sharu looked at her.
“But you can send a signal system-wide, right?” He demanded.
“Yes, sir!” she replied, her head slightly bowed.
“Then send the hatching signal to the attacking ships. It's why we had the eggs installed. And loose the hives on the city. If they want to play rough, then they will learn the price for such stupidity. When you're done with traitors, you send a crew to repair the antenna and send word to High Command.”
The signal was sent as the Gyrran warships kept fighting. Hir-Nan looked at the screen showing their ships' status. The Gyrran was taking out tier ships at an alarming rate. Now he saw more ships emerging: troop transports. And not all of them were Gyrran.
“Sir! New ships have been spotted over the cities: troop transports, Gyrran, human, and Nalos transports, sir!” he shouted out.
“Hive six to fifteen have been bombed and destroyed. Hives three and five have suffered severe attacks; they have gassed the entrance, and the bugs cannot be deployed.” Somebody called out.
“That leaves one, two, and four. That should be enough to take out Murnas and Furnak. And with them hatching, it won't matter anyway.”
“The ships don’t show any signs of stopping; in fact, they seem to jam any incoming signals. We can’t send the signal to them.” The security officer said, and Sharu looked at the officer.
“What? How can they block our signal?”
“I think we have been sabotaged, sir.” The security officer replied as an alarm rang out,
“Base breached! Base breached!”
“Release the HIVE!” Sharu shouted as the security officer frantically tried to do as he was told.
Hir-Nan tried to stay as unnoticed as he could. On the screen, he could see the whole fleet had been wiped out, along with all satellites. The Gyrran invaded the planet, and Pladused's population was over 99% Gyrran. The hundred thousand Caren were no match against the 500 million Gyrrans. He looked at his friend, who thought the same: could they escape this death trap?
Suddenly, the speakers began speaking in a robotic version of Caren.
“Surrender the base and turn over Commander Sharu Husha alive, and you will be allowed to surrender. We will blow up the base in two standard hours.”
Everybody looked at Sharu Husha, who pulled his side arms.
“The base is not lost! Your orders are to fight to the bitter end! I will do what I can to help you. If it's me they want, then my escaping might pull them away from the base.” He said, then moved toward the door. They all looked at him, they all knew he was going to run away and leave them all to die.
“The matriarch is going to kill him if he manages to escape.” His friend said, and Hir-Nan nodded. Then he looked at the screen. There was nothing to do now but to sit and wait.
He looked around the room at the twelve officers. Their boss looked after the escaping base commander, then back at them. Some of the officers started to pray. The security officers got up and formed a barrier, preparing for a last stand. Hir-Nan wondered what they thought they could accomplish. The moment they found out the base commander was gone, they would just bomb the whole place into rubble.
“I hope it will be quick,” Hur-Nun said.
“I think I found the saboteurs!” somebody called out as the image on the main screen changed. It showed Gyrran custodian personnel attacking the central mainframe and plugging devices into the system.
“We need to get down there and retake the mainframe!” The security officer said. Just as he spoke, three mechsuits entered the room with a troop of Gyrran soldiers, they seemed to give the Custodian some sort of medical injections. One of the mechs inserted something into the Mainframe.
“I’m sure he is downloading everything,” Hir-Nan said, and the security officer looked around.
“We have to do something!”
“What exactly? They locked us out, and if you want to stop it, you have to go down there. You want to fight a mech with that side arm?” Commander Furna said.
“You're all traitors!” he said.
“No, we are all dead; they just haven’t killed us yet. That’s humans and Nalos out there. Make peace, and if you want to die stupidly, then by all means run out there and try to get down six levels to a fortified room.” She replied, and the man cursed, then walked to the door, opened it, then ran out. Four others followed him.
“There go the fanatics,” Hur-Nun said, and the commander just looked at the door.
“Close the door. They won't take us alive, so if you want to try to escape, you're welcome to run. I won't hold it against you. I’m going to stay here and die at my station. If the god wills it, they will take us prisoners. If not, we are killed on sight. I don’t know what's better.” The commander said. Hur-Nun looked at the door the commander ran out.
“Tempting!”
“And stupid. They are going for him, and if he sees you, he will shoot you.” Hir-Nan replied.
On the screen, they saw the security officers and his fanatics get mowed down before they had reached the hallway to the stairways.
“It was nice to have you as a friend,” Hir-Nan said, and Hur-Nun smiled.
“Same. I wished we would be able to celebrate our tenth year.”
“So do I. But we have survived longer than the grunts. Nine years is a long life for us clones.” He replied, then they saw the enemy entering the hallway. They would be here soon.
Two of the officers got up and drew their side arms. He looked at Hur-Nun. He sighed and stood up, drawing his sidearms as well. One by one, they got up and drew their sidearms. It would be a desperate last stand. But at least they would die quickly.
Then the door exploded in.
Source: r/HFY · by /u/Engletroll